We are witnessing a data centre boom all across the globe and increasingly in Australia. Driven by growing demand for AI and digital services, data centres rely on heavy infrastructure and energy-intensive cooling systems. They attract billion-dollar global investment and in NSW, are being moved quickly through planning pipelines. This process has left limited clarity around community consultation and the local impacts of these projects, especially in already heat-stressed regions like Western Sydney.
Data centres are urban heat islands. Their energy and cooling requirements, and large-scale construction on previously farmland (such as in the case of the largest data centre in the world coming to Kemps Creek), will contribute to rising urban heat. We are concerned that suburbs such as Marsden Park, Eastern Creek, and Kemps Creek, which are already some of Sydney’s hottest suburbs, will now house these major data centres.
We also raise caution about the strain data centres place on energy and water resources. At a time when households are already facing rising financial pressures from the costs of keeping cool, there is a real risk that increased demand from data centres will drive up energy prices and only add to existing heat vulnerabilities.
Sweltering Cites Submission to Inquiry into Data Centres
Using community feedback and input, we have prepared a submission to the NSW Legislative Council Inquiry into Data Centres. You can read our full submission here.
We highlight the concerns raised by residents, many of whom live in close proximity to proposed major data centre developments. These concerns include noise pollution, impacts on biodiversity, urban heat, air quality, and increased pressure on the energy grid. There is currently insufficient evidence that these issues are being meaningfully considered or addressed.
Our recommendations to the Inquiry include requiring data centre developments to demonstrate that they will not exacerbate heat in already heat-vulnerable regions (and that any heat mitigation strategies are designed to deliver tangible community benefits), mandating blue-green infrastructure, and placing clear safeguards to ensure that the costs of increased energy and water demand are not passed on to communities, particularly through spillover increases to household bills. We also prepared a seperate ‘Stop the Bill Shock’ submission with the Antipoverty Centre and Parents for Climate.
Stop the Slop
Sweltering Cities has been working with partners in Western Sydney, including Tomorrow Movement, Y Collab, The Root Crop, and School of Zines to create a space for local residents to discuss what the development of major data centres will mean for them and their community. In our ‘Stop the Slop’ event, we crafted and heard from speakers about why Western Sydney was turning into a regional data centre hub, international examples of community campaigns on data centres, and the broader impacts of AI on Indigenous sovereignty. Thank you to Tamika Worrell, Bornwyn Cumbo, and Rikki Scanlan for a really insightful discussion!
A key theme that has emerged is that concern is not limited to the physical impacts of data centres themselves, but extends to the broader global patterns of extraction that underpin data centres and AI. While environmental impacts remain a key issue, community members are also raising concerns about how these technologies are used in relation to privacy, surveillance, militarisation, and the erosion of social cohesion, including the use of AI tools to generate and spread discriminatory content.
In this context, community members are expressing that data centre developments in Western Sydney cannot be considered in isolation from their wider social and cultural impacts. We are continuing to work with partners and community members to explore these issues and to build collective strategies to raise our voices and demand change.
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